Birthday CakeS

I love birthday celebrations. Like to see the cakes people made and of course I like to bake for them if I have the chance. So this time I got the chance to bake for 2 birthday gals. Yes, 2 cakes in one go!! Anyway both were 2 small cakes, so I need only few hours to made them and further more, not much decorations to do. Then we celebrated both birthdays together last night. Oh yes, we had a great time again!!
First, there is a sweetie girl's 2nd birthday! She was one of our dear friend's daughter. A 4" chocolate cake for the little cutie decorated with fondant. Makes it looks like a mushroom and a little cute bear for her to keep..:)
Does it looks like "Papa Smurf"'s house?...LOL


There was suppose to have a small chimney on top but due to the box I have, which was not tall enough to store the cake so the idea of the chimney was out. By the way, the little girl only attracted by the candle "2" that placed on the cake...haha! My friend said she even doesn't want her present given by her daddy...haha! She's too young to know what is happening...;p

Well, simple as it is. It only took me 1 hour to bake and another hour to decorate. As you can see it was really simple but the other older kids went "Ooo & Ahh" when they see the cake. I was quite satisfied with it..:D

For the recipe of the moist chocolate cake, you can refer to my older post here. I baked it with 2x 4" round pan and a round 5" bowl for the mushroom top.

Happy Birthday dear sweetie!!

Another cake, a tiramisu. Yeah, you'll probably say "HUH...tiramisu again"!!..hehe! This was requested by the birthday gal herself. But too bad due to the limited time (but I was lazy actually...haha!) there was no almond caramel that she wish to have..."OPPS!! Sorry dear friend, but I promised to make her some caramel when I have the time..:)

I stole the idea of our dear friend Bee Bee (Honeybeesweets) on how to display the cake. Well, I just don't want the same old recipe to look so boring..;p

p/s: Bee Bee, thank you for sharing the idea but my work was far too lousy compare to yours. Somehow I took the challenge and praised myself abit for the result..haha!


Please refer here for the recipe if you like...:) See the result here, it seems rather rough but we did enjoy it. Maybe most of us love alcohol and coffee, so that the cake was half gone in few minutes..;p We had a great time and I wish there'll be more gatherings coming soon.
Happy Belated Birthday my dear friend, wishing all the best in everything and healthy always..:)

Cheers!

Black Sesame Angku with Coconut Fillings

It's almost the end of the week again, and school will starts on Monday. Well, before I get into my daily routine next week, I better do something that I longed for. I miss this angku kuih that my mum taught me. I love the chewy texture when biting and I like the bean paste fillings but this round I'll make it with coconut fillings which my husband loves.
My mum gave me some black sesame powder which she made herself weeks ago. It smells so nice and I dare to say that those black sesame powder my mum made is much much much better than those selling outside. Love it, thanks MAMA!!
Without any hesitation, I tried it on the angku recipe she taught me with some changes in it.


Ingredients for Black Sesame Pastry:

200g Local White Sweet Potatoes (steamed and mashed)
290g glutinous rice flour
10g black sesame powder
1 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsps sugar
3 tbsps cornoil
210-220ml water

** May need more water depends on the quality of the sweet potatoes used.

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together and mix by hand. (add water slowly)
~ Knead lightly until a soft dough forms and leave for 20-30 minutes before using.
~ Wrapped in fillings and sealed tight.
~ Dust alittle rice flour
on the mould and press the angku onto the mould and knock out gently.
~ Brush alittle cornoil on the prepared banana leaves and place the angku on it.
~ Steamed at high heat for 5-8 minutes (smallest size of the mould) / 8-10 minutes (for medium sizes)
~ Brush alittle cornoil on top of the kuih right after steaming to prevent from sticking to each other.

For the details of the fillings you can refer to my older post. (Bean paste or coconut)

If you ask me, I prefer the beans paste fillings than the others, I can eat at least 5-6 pieces in one go...haha! Crazy me!!

This new pastry recipe was a good one. And it was actually my mum's idea too. The taste of the black sesame does not overlap the fillings and it has a nice aroma of the black sesame...:) So far, I've tried this pastry with orange sweet potatoes, pumpkin, taro, beetroot and now black sesame. I wonder what else can I use...;p

Cheers!!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节快乐

Its Mid-Autumn Festival today!! Wish everyone has a great day and a good celebration with family and friends. During this festival, we'll have lots of food and snacks to celebrate under the beautiful moon. (Hopefully there is a beautiful one tonight..;p) Well all kinds of food and of course not to mention, there must be mooncakes!! Lots of choices nowadays, huh.....and lots of flavours to choose too. By the way, I've just did 2 types this year and both with the same fillings (lotus paste with yolk). And both mooncakes were already sent to family members and friends...none for myself...haha! Anyway, I'm not so keen on eating them this year...:)

Here's my (new) recipe for this year, the other one was the flaky type which I did last year.


The name of this mooncake is so classy and I love it once I read the ingredients....hehe! Yup! This was easy to prepare with a classy name....."Golden Drops" (莲蓉核桃金露酥).

Ingredients:
270g Cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
30g custard powder
90g icing sugar
1 egg
75g shortening
75g butter

Deco:
50g walnuts
some white sesame seeds

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together into a dough. Leave aside.
~ Prepare any fillings as you like and wrapped up with some baked duck egg yolks.
~ Divide pastry into 30g each and wrap with the fillings.
~ Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle some sesame seeds and top with one walnut.
~ Bake at preheated oven at 180'C for 20-25 minutes.


Nutty Ham Mooncakes & Piggy biscuits (below) from my mum....yummy!

Not to forget some ice cream mooncakes during this hot weather. A gift from my friend from Haagen-Dazs...:)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone!!!

中秋节快乐